Foreclosure Inventory Plunges nearly 30%

The nation’s foreclosure inventory has contracted for 18 consecutive months and is now at its lowest point since the end of 2008, totaling 1.28 million loans, or just 2.54 percent of today’s active mortgages, according to Lender Processing Services (LPS).

The company’s latest report assessing loan-level data on the performance of mortgage assets through the end of October shows the industry’s foreclosure inventory rate is down 29.61 percent from last year. Through the first 10 months of 2013, the foreclosure inventory rate has plummeted 26 percent.

Delinquencies dropped 2.8 percent month-over-month in October to come in at a rate of 6.28 percent. LPS says while that’s not as low as the delinquency rates recorded

earlier this year—in August the rate was 6.20 percent and in May it settled in at 6.08 percent—it’s still headed in the right direction. Compared to last year, the rate of mortgages 30-plus days delinquent is down 10.69 percent.

Nationwide, there are 3,152,000 properties with mortgages 30 or more days past due; 1,283,000 of those are 90 or more days delinquent but not in foreclosure. Add to that the 1,276,000 loans that are part of the pre-sale foreclosure inventory, and there are 4,427,000 non-current home mortgages in the United States, by LPS’ assessment.

According to the company’s state-by-state breakdown, Mississippi has overtaken Florida as having the nation’s largest population of non-current loans, totaling 15.1 percent. Mississippi’s foreclosure inventory rate through October is just 2.1 percent, but it’s delinquency rate is 13 percent—the highest in the nation, by far.

Florida took the top spot on LPS’ list of states with the most non-current loans in 2008, displacing Mississippi. Since then, Florida held that spot, reining as the nation’s nonperformance leader for more than five years, up until last month.

Excluding the last five years, Mississippi has held the dubious distinction of having the highest non-current inventory as far back as LPS’ historical data goes. So, unfortunately for Mississippians, the company says, this is more indication that things are getting back to “normal.